madhusudhan das: the catalyst of modern odisha

SRJIS/BIMONTHLY/ ABHIJIT SAHOO & TUSARKANTA PATTNAIK (2524-2531)

JUNE-JULY , 2015, VOL. 2/10 www.srjis.com Page 2524

MADHUSUDHAN DAS: THE CATALYST OF MODERN ODISHA

Abhijit Sahoo, Ph.D

Tusarkanta Pattnaik , Ph.D

Lecturer KIIT School of Social Sciences (KSSS)

The present work is a humble attempt to enumerate and highlight the pioneering work of

Madhusudan Das in the three issues which mainly occupied his attention, Unification of Odia

speaking areas, Liberation of Odia women and Economic progress of Odisha. Hence to justify

his work here it is narrated that Madhusudan Das was the soaring character whose contribution

to the making of modern Odisha is many sided. Possessed immense courage and fearless mind he

practised what he believed. He devoted his entire life to the cause of Odishas welfare. He

worked hard all his life for the political, social, intellectual, economic regeneration and

upliftment of Odisha.

Key Words: Odia speaking areas, liberation, economic development, Odisha, political,

upliftment.

Introduction:

Madhusudan Das was a great man not only of Odisha but of the whole India. I have been

hearing his name for the last fifty years. Though I had no opportunity to meet him directly yet I

have seen him from a distance. He was a very great friend of my father. During this period

whenever the affairs of Odisha came up for discussion and consideration, the name of

Madhusudan absorbed all this and came into prominence.

Jawaharlal Nehru.

c Scholarly Research Journal's is licensed Based on a work at www.srjis.com

Abstract



Odisha remembers with deep gratitude and pays its rich tribute to makers of modern Odisha who

made pioneering contribution in myriad fields. Notable among them are Utkalamani Pandit

Gopabandhu Das, Maharaja Krushnachandra Gajapati Narayan Deo, Fakir Mohan Senapati,

Pandit Nilakantha Das, Radhanath Ray and last but not least Madhusudhan Das. Their sincere

endeavour ultimately paves the way for creation of separate state of Odisha on 1st April 1936.

Odisha formerly rendered Orissa is one of the thirty states of India located in the East of India. It

is the ninth largest state by area and the eleventh largest population. Odia is the official and the

most widely used spoken language. The ancient kingdom of Kalinga which was invaded by the

Mauryan Emperor Asoka in 261 B.C. resulting in the bloody Kalinga war coincides with the

modern day of Odisha. The modern state of Odisha was established on1st April 1936, as a

province in British India and consisted predominately of Odia speaking regions. But the Odia

speaking regions lay dismembered in foreign Presidencies and outlying Provinces and numerous

Feudatory States. Odisha had lost her identity. Her culture had been obliterated beyond

identification.1 At this critical juncture, Madhusudan arrived in the socio-politico-economic

scene of Odisha, as a plentiful response of nature to the demanding requirements of the land. He

came as a messiah for the thousands of his countrymen who where rolling in abject poverty,

hunger and humiliation.2

The sole objective of his life was the revival of Odisha into its former

glory and unite the Odia speaking territories. He dreamt of the economic prosperity of his land,

who had suffered enough from British exploitation and negligence.3

Madhusudan Das, the Grand Old Man of Odisha (Kulabruddha), popularly known as Mr. Das,

Madhu Barrister, Utkal-Gourab, (Glory of Odisha) and Odisar Janaka (Father of Odisha) was

born on 28 April, 1848 in an aristocratic Karana family of the village Satyabhampur of the

Cuttack district. His father Choudhury Raghunath Das was a legal practitioner by profession.4

His mother Parvati Debi was an orthodox Hindu lady, a strong moralist with great vision and

foresight who inculcate moral influence on Madhusudan. After completed his primary education

in his own village, he passed matriculation from Cuttack Ravenshaw Collegiate School and left

for Calcutta for higher education. 5

He took his B.A. Degree from the Calcutta University in

1870. After his graduation he served as a teacher in high school.6 Leaving teachership and later

on the post of a clerk from Balasore, again he went to Calcutta for higher studies. He completed

his Master Degree (M.A.) and B.L. Degree from same University in 1873 and 1878



respectively.7

He was a man of scholarly attainment and had a fair knowledge of not only in

Sanskrit but Persian as well and became the first Odia to be a lawyer. After the sad demise of his

wife he returned to Odisha and became a distinguished legal practitioner at Cuttack. Besides his

legal profession, he thought for the all round development of the people of Odisha.

After the above deep discussion about the great pioneer Madhusudan Das, here in the next

paragraph we are addressing the matter with focusing on following objectives like

1. To highlight about his work in the light of unification of Odia speaking tracts through

Utkal Sabha and Utkal Samilani.

2. To make an analysis regarding his vision about economic development of Odisha.

3. To deep study regarding his attempt to liberate the women of Odisha.

Formation of Utkal Sabha and Utkal Sammilani:

He was deeply moved and surprised to see the discrimination meted out against the Odias by

administrative authority. He was convinced that the miserable plight of the Odias was only due

to the apathetic and callous attitude of authorities towards the interest of the Odia people. The

Odias could not stand united only because of their vivisection and annexation with three different

provinces. So, he took a solid stand for the unification of the scattered Odias by organising and

mobilising strong public opinion among the Odias and pressurised the British rulers for the

unification of the scattered Odia speaking tracts for the socio- economic and cultural growth of

the Odias at large.8The Odia speaking tracts remained under Telgu, Hindi and Bengali

domination of the Madras Presidency in the South, Central Province in the West and Bengal

Presidency in the North respectively. For this purpose, he and Gourisankar Ray made efforts to

establish the Utkal Sabha in 1882 at cuttack .9 This is the organisation which later functioned as

the branch of the Indian National Congress. It remained the nodal organisation to fight for the

National Cause for many years. It also prepared the people of Odisha to participate in local self-

government. The Utkal Sabha took up the problems of poverty and backwardness and Madhu

Babu was happy to solve some of them. After working as Vice-President and President of Utkal

Sabha, Madhusudan Das felt that Odisha will have to suffer until it was united. He had

recognised early that Odisha, tied to the tail ends of three separate administrative divisions of

three different Presidencies, speaking different languages had no hopes of redemption, until all

the Odia speaking tracts were united under one administration and in a separate province of its



own. From this feeling came the urge to unite all Odias in a bigger platform. Utkal Union

Conference or Utkal Sammilani was the fulfillment of this urge. 10

Madhusudan organised Utkal Union Conference to form the channel for discussion and

negotiations with the authorities to solve the problems and open avenues for a new era of

unification and integration and played a piloting role in engineering the plans and programmes,

pioneering the aims and objectives and championing the cause of the Odia movement. Utkal

Sammilani came into existence in December 1903 with the extinction of Utkal Sabha, it

spearheaded the movement of the unification of Odia speaking units under one administration

with right earnestness, disciplined plans and programmes.11

The unification of Odia speaking

tracts like Sambalpur, Ganjam, Chhota Nagpur, some areas of Vizagapatnam and Midanpore

with Odisha division, a long felt demand of the Utkal Sabha, was put forth before the British

government.

The Utkal Sammilani met annually and grew into a national assembly of Odias under the

personal care and guidance of Madhusudhan. He went from place to place to carry on

propaganda for it. He spent money for this organization. He drew the Zamindars and Feudatory

Chiefs like the Raja of Kanika Rajendra Narayan Bhanj Deo and Maharaja Shri Rama Chandra

Bhanjadeo of Mayurbhanj into the organisation. In 1907 Madhusudan went to England to

convince the British public about the necessity of the unification of the Odia speaking areas.

Lord Curzon supported the cause of Odisha in the House of Lords, and Mac Cold Scot took up

the cause of Odisha in the House of Commons. Consequently, Odisha was separated from Bengal

and the province of Bihar and Odisha was formed in 1st April 1912. The formation of the

province of Bihar and Odisha was an official recognition of the identity of Odisha.12

The Odisha

division comprised the districts of Sambalpur, Anugul, Balasore, Cuttack and Puri. After that

Madhu Babu voiced the demand of the Odia people several times through Utkala Samilani but

was very much unsuccessful in his mission. At last, Odisha as a separate province on the basis of

language was created by the British Government in 1936 two years after his death. 13

Economic Development and Madhu Babu:

He was a versatile genius and an ardent nationalist, outstanding legislator, widely acclaimed

advocate, well known journalist but at the same time a great industrialist. His pioneering efforts

in the industrial progress of Odisha played a significant role in shaping the economic prosperity



of Odisha. He thought that Odisha was rich in mineral resources, raw materials and manpower,

but the people were very poor having lost their industrial activities. So for the economic

prosperity of Odisha he devoted his time and invested his money and tried to bring economic

independence of the odias.14

Odisha was famous for its traditional filigree work which was an exquisite art. Sambalpur was

famous for its artistic textiles. Berhampur was famous for beautiful Pata products. But because

of the defective economic policies of the government, the cottage industries and handicrafts of

Odisha were slowly in a dying condition. Being determined to revive the glory of Odisha's arts,

Madhusudan set up a large factory in 1897 known as Odisha Art Ware inside the compound of

his house for production of indigenous art wares and arranged their sale in a large building

adjacent to his house. A separate school of Art Ware was attached to the factory with hundred

trainees who produced beautiful articles. He also provided training to one hundred fifty weavers

from his factory for production of handloom fabrics. He devoted much of his time to improve the

artistic skills keeping in mind the choice of foreign market. He introduced different types of hand

operating machines for production of wares of different shapes and sizes. In order to popularise

the Odishan artistic skills he presented filigree articles to many British Officers. He went abroad

twice and presented his craft products to the notable dignitaries of Great Britain and Europeans

in order to popularise the Odishan art. His art wares were highly cherished by high British

officers like Charles Elliot, Maddox Lawrence and many others. When the Lt. Governor of

Bengal, Sir John Woodburn visited the Odishan Art Wares, he was presented an address in Odia

written on a palm leaf, creatively decorated and enclosed in a silver casket bearing the

architecture of the Bhubaneswar temple in miniature form. Woodburn was highly delighted to

see the craftsmanship of the artisans and Madhu Babu discussed with him the problems of the

artisan class of Odisha.

In the Odisha Art Wares factory along with filigree work, horn ivory, wood carving, brass

aluminum and many other beautiful handicraft products were manufactured. He introduced new

methods of work structure and taught the workers to produce articles matching the modern taste

of the people. Horn articles were exported to Calcutta, Bombay and too many other places and

were highly appreciated. 15

He introduced the Charakha - the spinning wheel and encouraged

cotton cultivation for production of Swadeshi cloth. He brought the village weavers to his



workshop and imparted them better training in weaving. A type of cotton cloth prepared under

his guidance was popularly known as Madhu Babus Cloth and people had great liking towards

it.16

For the promotion of leather industry in Odisha, he established his famous shoes factory

Utkal Tannery in 1905. This shoe making industry was set up at Cuttack near the railway station

over an area of about forty acres of land. For establishment of this factory he had invested a

considerable amount of money out of his own income. About one hundred fifty workers were

employed in this tannery. Within a very short time the Utkal Tannery earned great reputation not

only throughout India but also in abroad for its quality products. The process through which

Madhu Babu examined the quality of the goods led to incur heavy loss at times and the factory

was closed for that. 17

Such was the endeavour of Madhu Babu for the

industrialisation and economic regeneration of Odisha. He was the

pride and glory of Odisha.18

In his memory Fakir Mohan has rightly

said:

"Dhanya dhanya Madhusudan

Utkal Matara Jogya Nandana

Dela Utkalaku Nabajibana

Sikhaila Loke Jatibandana".

Education and Madhu Babu:

He played a stellar and conscipicious role in disseminating education in Odisha for which he had

taken lot of pains. As the vice-chairman of the Cuttack District board and as a member of the

legislative council, Madhusudan had tried to set up more schools not only in the coastal Odisha,

but in the feudatory estates too. He was also took keen interest for the development of womens

education. Under his care the only girls school in Odisha thrived when it was about to be closed

in 1907. He made his adopted daughter Sailabala the head mistress of that school who had

returned from England after receiving training in women education. The

school as a premier educational institution of women education developed in

Odisha and was named as Sailabala Womens College after the name of

Madhu Babus adopted daughter Sailabala.19 Another great venture of

Madhusudhan Das became successful when women with law degree became

eligible for practise. He was greatly responsible for spread of womens



education in Bihar and Odisha. Shudhansubala Hazra the sister of Sailabala Das was the first

advocate in India. It was achievable only through Madhu Babus efforts.

Apart from this he was also a writer and has written many famous articles and poems in both

Odia and English language. The famous poems of Madhusudan Das are Jati Itihash, Utkal

Santan, Jananira Ukti etc. Madhubabu had the rare distinction of becoming First Odia in a

number of fields such as

First Odia Graduate

First Odia M.A.

First Odia Law Graduate

First Odia Advocate

First Odia to visit Europe.

First Odia to become a member of Provincial and vice regal Legislative Council.

First Odia Minister.

First Odia Minister to resign for not taking salary meant for Ministers.20

Conclusion:

For the eradication of the plights of the Odia people, he really thought from the core of his heart.

His sole object was all round development of Odisha. He did not like that Odia people should be

looked down upon by others. He spent all his earnings for the common cause and died as a

pauper. In the last part of his life he had to declare himself insolvent. He died on February 4,

1934. As an elder statesman, a learned man, matured politician, social worker, champion of

female education, promoter of cottage and small scale industries, economic reformer he was in

every sense the pride of Odisha. His heart was always full of love and sympathy for the poor and

distressed. He earned like a prince and spent like a prince. He really found delight in helping

others. He is unquestionably the towering personality that Odisha has ever produced. His

immense contribution towards the State and Nation would be admired forever and he will

continue to remain as a source of motivation for the younger generations. Till today, he is loved,

liked, adored, admired and respected in the memory legions of Odias. He is rightly called the

maker of new Odisha. For this, generations of her people will cherish his name with reverence

and affection. Posterity will cherish and even accolade the incredible feet accomplished by this

benign soul.



Reference

Raghunath Das, Madhusudan and the Renaissance of Odisha, in Debendra Kumar Dash, (Ed),

Madhusudan Das, His Life and Achievements, Rourkela, 2002, p-208.

A.k.Mishra, Madhusudan and the Growth o f Economic Nationalism in Orissa in Debendra

Kumar Dash, (Ed), Madhusudan Das, His Life and Achievements, Rourkela, 2002, pp-185-

188.

M.N.Das, History of Modern India, Cuttack, 2001, pp-250-251.

A.C. Pradhan, A Study of History of Orissa, Bhubaneswar, 1985, pp-356-359.

Purna Chandra Das,History of Orissa, (Since Kalinga War), New Delhi, 1992, pp-143-146.

A.C. Pradhan, Op.cit.p-358.

Harihar Panda, History of Odisha, Cuttack, 2008, pp-271-277.

Odisha Review , The Makers of Modern Odisha, ,2011, p-10.

Harihar Panda, Op.cit. p-274.

Vijaya Kumar Sunwani, Madusudhan Das:- A Tribute on the occasion of Utkal Dibas,

Language in India, April,Vol-6:4, p-1.

Odisha Review, Op.cit.

A.C. Pradhan, Op.cit.

Harihar Panda, Op.cit.

Jyostna Sahoo, Industrial Development of Odisha and Madhusudan Das Odisha Review, July-

2009, p-43.

Ibid, p-44.

Harihar Panda, Op.cit, p-277.

Ibid.

Jyostna Sahoo, Op.cit, p-45.

Harihar Panda, Op.cit.

Krushna Chandra Dalai, Pioneer of Law Madhubabu and Its Legacy in the Domain of Orissa

Odisha Review, April-2012,p-13.

madhusudhan das: the catalyst of modern odisha

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